Rugby League International Federation Regional development Manager Tas Baitieri has confirmed that members of the Vodafone Fiji Bati Rugby League World Cup squad will be paid their outstanding prize money in a few weeks' time.
Baitieri made this comment after the Fiji Bati players threatened to boycott their test matches this year as they have not received their prize money payments.
Baitieri says that Fiji and France were among some of the teams that had not been paid yet.
He adds that this should be settled within a couple of weeks as it is not a simple exercise to distribute the prize money that everybody wants because there are regulations in place for everybody to be aware of.
Baitieri says that they have received the authorization letter from the FNRL to pay the players and they are working on it.
Meanwhile, it would have been easier to pay the players from Fiji but FNRL CEO Timoci Naleba says that it was the players wishes for the payments to be done from Australia.
Naleba has also confirmed that this demand is only from a few players in the squad and they are hoping this will be resolved soon.
According to NRL.com, players were supposed to share AUD$125,000 prize money for qualifying for the semi‑final against Australia on November 24th.
The Rugby League Players Association is also monitoring the situation and believes players from other nations have received payments owed to them for playing at the World Cup.
Source: NRL.com
